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Friday, 11 November 2016

Wole Soyinka Risks Jail Terms If He Tears Green Card – Legal Expert

A legal luminary, Mr Kayode Ajulo, has cautioned Nigerian Nobel Literature Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, against carrying his threat to destroy his American Green Card in protest of Donald Trump’s victory at the U.S. Presidential election.

Ajulo gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

NAN recalls that Soyinka issued the threat to destroy his American Citizen’s Card before voting begun in the keenly contested election between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Most people around the World, including some huge population of Americans, had wished for the Democratic Party’s candidate to win the race to the White House.

The election of the Republic candidate as the U.S. President-elect had sent some waves of shock to most countries.

Reacting to the threat, Ajulo warned Soyinka that he risked a jail term of three to seven years, if he (Soyinka) cut his green card.

“I have no problem with Kogi; he is an opinion moulder, an elder statesman and nation builder, who should know the implication of such act.

“Under the American law losing or having your U.S. green card destroyed can be a serious problem,’’ he said.

He said legally such is tagged as wishful destruction of government’s property.

Ajulo said the truth is that Soyinka is far better and far bigger than that because such act is provocative and unacceptable.

He stressed that the literary icon is free to leave the country but does not have to tear the card; instead he should return the card as required by the law.

Ajulo said the 82-year-old author, who is currently a resident scholar at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs, should know better.

He said it has a lot of implications for Nigerians.

Ajulo said green cards or passports are valuable documents and should be looked after it with care.

He said mishandling of passport could stop you from travelling not to talk of destroying green card.

Ajulo described Soyinka as a good ambassador who cares not just about Nigeria but the world at large, advising him to keep to it.

He said Trump’s victory had “brought an already teetering world closer to the precipice.

“Trump’s wall is already under construction. Walls are built in the mind, and Trump has erected walls, not only across the mental landscape of America, but across the global landscape,” said the lawyer.

Soyinka pledged to keep a promise he had given a few days before the Nov. 8 election, when he told students at Oxford University that “I will cut my green card myself and start packing up” if Trump won the polls.

The literary icon also vowed to leave the United States by Jan. 20, 2017, the day president-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated.